Friday evening's pub session was grey, cool (I was wearing a sweatshirt, for goodness sake), and distinctly humid. Saturday morning we woke to a thunderstorm and heavy rain - some 20mm before 11am. But as so often with summer storms, but midday, the sun was out and temperatures rocketed and we were able to sit out for aperos in the garden and say how lovely it all was. So at 3:30am, we were unimpressed to be woken with a shock by loud thunder nearly overhead and positively biblical rain, which carried on for a good hour.
I am always surprised after such a violent sounding night, how in the morning, you have to look really hard to find the evidence of the cataclysm that seemed to be going on during the hours of darkness. Yes, the rain gauge was pretty full, and the one at The Garden was nearly overflowing, and driving to The Garden, there were odd banks of sand by some of the fields, but nothing particularly broken, just a lot more water in the ponds.
It is sad that summer ends so abruptly, not least as we are still in Comice season, and Genneteil were doing the honours this year for the Noyant Villages area. Still by the time they got to the procession of villages (no fancy floats this year from the Noyant area), the sun was doing its best to shine on them. I do feel that this year's procession was a demonstration of cruelty to Renault 4s and as I used to drive one, I felt a lot of sympathy for this poor car, pulling a trailer that was too well loaded for the weight of the car.
For an event where the theme was Rock and Retro, I also felt that the non-marching band weren't quite in the swing of the theme by playing Lady Gaga's Poker Face. But perhaps it is the highlight of their repertoire.
Autumn jobs are coming to the forefront of our thinking. The Meadow needs to be fully mown and the side paths need to be cleared so that I can get into the little woodland at the end and finally see what is down there. The Orchard is too overgrown and needs to be sorted out before the walnuts start to fall - not least as walnuts are our rent to the landlady. So, lots to do, and possibly too much for one man.
So I rummaged in my moth filled wallet and invested in a strimmer/brushcutter that I can use. My elbow has ceased to support frequent use of a pullcord for starting a petrol engine, so I have gone for a battery model and used it for the first time yesterday. The battery lasted longer than I did, which bodes well for later in the autumn. Me in safety gear, harness and carrying said strimmer is not a good look, but better safe than sorry!
Last Sunday, in a last hurrah to summer, we attended a jazz manouche concert at our local pub - Les Epines de Mymi Rose. I've wanted to catch one of her concerts for a while, so was delighted to spend a warm summer evening, sitting with a glass of wine. listening to an excellent performance.
One of the delights of autumn here are vivid sunsets, so this from Wednesday night may well be the first of many. There is much that is autumnal around at the moment, with the giant orange jelly slugs, ripe fruit falling and a certain feel to the air. I am very fond of early autumn, but not so much this year, as we never seem to have had much of a summer. Perhaps a week or so in August.
I did mention giant orange jelly slugs - they are numerous and finding life just too, too wonderful at the moment. Wandering around the One Acre Wood I nearly stopped slug sex but standing on two, but managed to sidestep them just in time. Fascinating and disgusting at the same time!
Have a good week!
Comments